Identifying Outcomes of Care from Medical Records to Improve Doctor-Patient Communication

Between appointments, healthcare providers have limited interaction with their patients, but patients have similar patterns of care. Medications have common side effects; injuries have an expected healing time; and so on. By modeling patient interventions with outcomes, healthcare systems can equip providers with better feedback. In this work, we present a pipeline for analyzing medical records according to an ontology directed at allowing closed-loop feedback between medical encounters. Working with medical data from multiple domains, we use a combination of data processing, machine learning, and clinical expertise to extract knowledge from patient records. While our current focus is on technique, the ultimate goal of this research is to inform development of a system using these models to provide knowledge-driven clinical decision-making

Ontology-based Access Control in Open Scenarios: Applications to Social Networks and the Cloud

La integració d'Internet a la societat actual ha fet possible compartir fàcilment grans quantitats d'informació electrònica i recursos informàtics (que inclouen maquinari, serveis informàtics, etc.) en entorns distribuïts oberts. Aquests entorns serveixen de plataforma comuna per a usuaris heterogenis (per exemple, empreses, individus, etc.) on es proporciona allotjament d'aplicacions i sistemes d'usuari personalitzades; i on s'ofereix un accés als recursos compartits des de qualsevol lloc i amb menys esforços administratius. El resultat és un entorn que permet a individus i empreses augmentar significativament la seva productivitat. Com ja s'ha dit, l'intercanvi de recursos en entorns oberts proporciona importants avantatges per als diferents usuaris, però, també augmenta significativament les amenaces a la seva privacitat. Les dades electròniques compartides poden ser explotades per tercers (per exemple, entitats conegudes com "Data Brokers"). Més concretament, aquestes organitzacions poden agregar la informació compartida i inferir certes característiques personals sensibles dels usuaris, la qual cosa pot afectar la seva privacitat. Una manera de del.liar aquest problema consisteix a controlar l'accés dels usuaris als recursos potencialment sensibles. En concret, la gestió de control d'accés regula l'accés als recursos compartits d'acord amb les credencials dels usuaris, el tipus de recurs i les preferències de privacitat dels propietaris dels recursos/dades. La gestió eficient de control d'accés és crucial en entorns grans i dinàmics. D'altra banda, per tal de proposar una solució viable i escalable, cal eliminar la gestió manual de regles i restriccions (en la qual, la majoria de les solucions disponibles depenen), atès que aquesta constitueix una pesada càrrega per a usuaris i administradors . Finalment, la gestió del control d'accés ha de ser intuïtiu per als usuaris finals, que en general no tenen grans coneixements tècnics.La integración de Internet en la sociedad actual ha hecho posible compartir fácilmente grandes cantidades de información electrónica y recursos informáticos (que incluyen hardware, servicios informáticos, etc.) en entornos distribuidos abiertos. Estos entornos sirven de plataforma común para usuarios heterogéneos (por ejemplo, empresas, individuos, etc.) donde se proporciona alojamiento de aplicaciones y sistemas de usuario personalizadas; y donde se ofrece un acceso ubicuo y con menos esfuerzos administrativos a los recursos compartidos. El resultado es un entorno que permite a individuos y empresas aumentar significativamente su productividad. Como ya se ha dicho, el intercambio de recursos en entornos abiertos proporciona importantes ventajas para los distintos usuarios, no obstante, también aumenta significativamente las amenazas a su privacidad. Los datos electrónicos compartidos pueden ser explotados por terceros (por ejemplo, entidades conocidas como “Data Brokers”). Más concretamente, estas organizaciones pueden agregar la información compartida e inferir ciertas características personales sensibles de los usuarios, lo cual puede afectar a su privacidad. Una manera de paliar este problema consiste en controlar el acceso de los usuarios a los recursos potencialmente sensibles. En concreto, la gestión de control de acceso regula el acceso a los recursos compartidos de acuerdo con las credenciales de los usuarios, el tipo de recurso y las preferencias de privacidad de los propietarios de los recursos/datos. La gestión eficiente de control de acceso es crucial en entornos grandes y dinámicos. Por otra parte, con el fin de proponer una solución viable y escalable, es necesario eliminar la gestión manual de reglas y restricciones (en la cual, la mayoría de las soluciones disponibles dependen), dado que ésta constituye una pesada carga para usuarios y administradores. Por último, la gestión del control de acceso debe ser intuitivo para los usuarios finales, que por lo general carecen de grandes conocimientos técnicos.Thanks to the advent of the Internet, it is now possible to easily share vast amounts of electronic information and computer resources (which include hardware, computer services, etc.) in open distributed environments. These environments serve as a common platform for heterogeneous users (e.g., corporate, individuals etc.) by hosting customized user applications and systems, providing ubiquitous access to the shared resources and requiring less administrative efforts; as a result, they enable users and companies to increase their productivity. Unfortunately, sharing of resources in open environments has significantly increased the privacy threats to the users. Indeed, shared electronic data may be exploited by third parties, such as Data Brokers, which may aggregate, infer and redistribute (sensitive) personal features, thus potentially impairing the privacy of the individuals. A way to palliate this problem consists on controlling the access of users over the potentially sensitive resources. Specifically, access control management regulates the access to the shared resources according to the credentials of the users, the type of resource and the privacy preferences of the resource/data owners. The efficient management of access control is crucial in large and dynamic environments such as the ones described above. Moreover, in order to propose a feasible and scalable solution, we need to get rid of manual management of rules/constraints (in which most available solutions rely) that constitutes a serious burden for the users and the administrators. Finally, access control management should be intuitive for the end users, who usually lack technical expertise, and they may find access control mechanism more difficult to understand and rigid to apply due to its complex configuration settings

Memories for Life: A Review of the Science and Technology

This paper discusses scientific, social and technological aspects of memory. Recent developments in our understanding of memory processes and mechanisms, and their digital implementation, have placed the encoding, storage, management and retrieval of information at the forefront of several fields of research. At the same time, the divisions between the biological, physical and the digital worlds seem to be dissolving. Hence opportunities for interdisciplinary research into memory are being created, between the life sciences, social sciences and physical sciences. Such research may benefit from immediate application into information management technology as a testbed. The paper describes one initiative, Memories for Life, as a potential common problem space for the various interested disciplines

Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Digital Preservation

The 12th International Conference on Digital Preservation (iPRES) was held on November 2-6, 2015 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. There were 327 delegates from 22 countries. The program included 12 long papers, 15 short papers, 33 posters, 3 demos, 6 workshops, 3 tutorials and 5 panels, as well as several interactive sessions and a Digital Preservation Showcase

Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Digital Preservation

The 12th International Conference on Digital Preservation (iPRES) was held on November 2-6, 2015 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. There were 327 delegates from 22 countries. The program included 12 long papers, 15 short papers, 33 posters, 3 demos, 6 workshops, 3 tutorials and 5 panels, as well as several interactive sessions and a Digital Preservation Showcase

Securely sharing dynamic medical information in e-health

This thesis has introduced an infrastructure to share dynamic medical data between mixed health care providers in a secure way, which could benefit the health care system as a whole. The study results of the universally data sharing into a varied patient information system prototypes

ECHO Information sharing models

As part of the ECHO project, the Early Warning System (EWS) is one of four technologies under development. The E-EWS will provide the capability to share information to provide up to date information to all constituents involved in the E-EWS. The development of the E-EWS will be rooted in a comprehensive review of information sharing and trust models from within the cyber domain as well as models from other domains

Building information modeling – A game changer for interoperability and a chance for digital preservation of architectural data?

Digital data associated with the architectural design-andconstruction process is an essential resource alongside -and even past- the lifecycle of the construction object it describes. Despite this, digital architectural data remains to be largely neglected in digital preservation research – and vice versa, digital preservation is so far neglected in the design-and-construction process. In the last 5 years, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has seen a growing adoption in the architecture and construction domains, marking a large step towards much needed interoperability. The open standard IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) is one way in which data is exchanged in BIM processes. This paper presents a first digital preservation based look at BIM processes, highlighting the history and adoption of the methods as well as the open file format standard IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) as one way to store and preserve BIM data